Is America Too Prudish, or is Europe too Lose?
Dec 1st, 2004, 05:14 PM
#44
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<b>AAFrequentFlyer</b> : did you hear the "pop!" this morning when you freed your head from your tailend? I think not.
READ the following excerpts which prompted my post:
Author: PalQ
Date: 12/01/2004, 03:58 pm
Message: "I just returned from the UK..."
Author: mamc
Date: 12/01/2004, 04:40 pm
Message: You just returned from Europe where you saw girls playing volleyball topless in Munich?
READ the following excerpts which prompted my post:
Author: PalQ
Date: 12/01/2004, 03:58 pm
Message: "I just returned from the UK..."
Author: mamc
Date: 12/01/2004, 04:40 pm
Message: You just returned from Europe where you saw girls playing volleyball topless in Munich?
Dec 1st, 2004, 07:06 PM
#45
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Now here's a question: why would anybody want to play volleyball topless? (Unless it is an exhibition game, of course.)
I personally believe that television is both stupid and vulgar--and that is why we haven't had one for 9 years. I occasionally watch tv in hotels, and of course the kids watched at their friends' homes (of two in college, one has a tv and one doesn't). Television in Europe is also stupid and vulgar, but even more so. But it always HAS been--the medium lends itself to vulgarity. In the 70's I watched a "family feud" type show in Holland in which one family tried to "out fart" the other----this is no joke or exaggeration. There's no sense of propriety on t.v. Instead of complaining about that, however, I just don't have one. We haven't felt left out because we don't have that one big connection to popular culture---which, by definition, is not enduring or substantial.
By European standards I am a prude. I don't want to see topless bathers, but instead of complaining about it I simply stay away from the beaches. It seems to me that OP is suggesting that American prudes are moral vigilantes. Perhaps some are--but that may have more to do with their politics/social agenda than their morals.
I personally believe that television is both stupid and vulgar--and that is why we haven't had one for 9 years. I occasionally watch tv in hotels, and of course the kids watched at their friends' homes (of two in college, one has a tv and one doesn't). Television in Europe is also stupid and vulgar, but even more so. But it always HAS been--the medium lends itself to vulgarity. In the 70's I watched a "family feud" type show in Holland in which one family tried to "out fart" the other----this is no joke or exaggeration. There's no sense of propriety on t.v. Instead of complaining about that, however, I just don't have one. We haven't felt left out because we don't have that one big connection to popular culture---which, by definition, is not enduring or substantial.
By European standards I am a prude. I don't want to see topless bathers, but instead of complaining about it I simply stay away from the beaches. It seems to me that OP is suggesting that American prudes are moral vigilantes. Perhaps some are--but that may have more to do with their politics/social agenda than their morals.
Dec 1st, 2004, 10:35 PM
#47
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I have been on some beaches in Europe where I wished the bathers laying and prancing about had been more modest. Public nudity is not always a good thing to watch.
If women's frontal nudity is routine on network TV in the UK, why not male frontal nudity?
If women's frontal nudity is routine on network TV in the UK, why not male frontal nudity?
Dec 1st, 2004, 11:24 PM
#48
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""" Now graft and corruption in a public office-holder to me is totally unacceptable and this is one area where i think we Americans have the upper morality hand."""
Are you on crack ? Who finances politicians in America ? Why would big business make huge donations to campaigns if not to corrupt the political process ?
I also find it strange that some people take the moral high ground in the country that produces the most pornography, allows handguns, has a gang culture in certain areas, has funded the overthrow of regimes, had segregation, etc etc. I could continue.
I just had to get that off my chest.
My personal perception is that the USA in general is more conservative than Europe.
Are you on crack ? Who finances politicians in America ? Why would big business make huge donations to campaigns if not to corrupt the political process ?
I also find it strange that some people take the moral high ground in the country that produces the most pornography, allows handguns, has a gang culture in certain areas, has funded the overthrow of regimes, had segregation, etc etc. I could continue.
I just had to get that off my chest.
My personal perception is that the USA in general is more conservative than Europe.
Dec 1st, 2004, 11:35 PM
#49
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Just for the record,
PalQ, sorry but that's "ça y est". I did not understand at first what you meant by "C'aillez" but then realized. "ça y est" literally meanins "it-there-is".
PalQ, sorry but that's "ça y est". I did not understand at first what you meant by "C'aillez" but then realized. "ça y est" literally meanins "it-there-is".
Dec 1st, 2004, 11:48 PM
#50
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"Look, the US is simply bigger, which means there's more of everything, including more morons. And because the morons shout, they tend to drown out the intelligent people, which the USA also has more of. Unless you believe the Hubble telescope was built by the audience of the Ricky Lake show, that is." (author Terry Pratchett, in an interview)
Dec 2nd, 2004, 02:50 AM
#52
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kappa and PalQ:
Well I wondered if "ca y est" was what was meant.
By what miracle of retention of utterly useless titbits from my childhood do I remember the advice that my high-school principal -- a dry, severe man we called The Grey Shadow" -- gave us, sans translation, on graduation in 1969? It was a quotation from some deceased French worthy:
"Si ca y est, ca y est. Si ca n'y est pas, faut recommencer. Tout le reste est de la blague."
which I translate freely as:
"If you've got it right, you've got it right. I you've got it wrong, start over. The rest is a breeze."
BTW: In what English-language high-school of today would a principal assume that every graduate would be able to translate that sentence?
Well I wondered if "ca y est" was what was meant.
By what miracle of retention of utterly useless titbits from my childhood do I remember the advice that my high-school principal -- a dry, severe man we called The Grey Shadow" -- gave us, sans translation, on graduation in 1969? It was a quotation from some deceased French worthy:
"Si ca y est, ca y est. Si ca n'y est pas, faut recommencer. Tout le reste est de la blague."
which I translate freely as:
"If you've got it right, you've got it right. I you've got it wrong, start over. The rest is a breeze."
BTW: In what English-language high-school of today would a principal assume that every graduate would be able to translate that sentence?
Dec 2nd, 2004, 03:37 AM
#53
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Not exactly in topic, but within the same context. I have a very hard time trying to explain to my children why mothers and sons and fathers and daughters kiss each other lips in American movies. Is it a normal practice in the US or am I just watching the wrong movies?
Dec 2nd, 2004, 03:37 AM
#54
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Who would be ignorant enough to assume that everyone in a particular high school would be able to speak French (or German, or Russian, or Arabic, or Korean, or.....)--unless it was the only foreign language taught and everyone was required to take it?
Dec 2nd, 2004, 04:41 AM
#56
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Um, lobo - what movies are you watching? It is not common practice for families to kiss each other on the lips in the US, at least not where I've grown up and lived - the northeast and now the mid-Atlantic. I can't think of a movie where I've seen this, either, off hand, so maybe you are watching the wrong movies! 
Karen
Karen
